Polymer Clay Leaves

Good evening.  It is late here in Pennsylvania... almost 11pm.  I spent the evening with my mother beading.  My dh is out of town on business tonight.  I got home around 9pm tonight and decided to play some more.  I am on a macramé and polymer clay kick lately.  But, I created these fall leaves out of polymer clay to use on some Fall themed ATC cards for a swap on Mini Album Scraps ning site.

I conditioned my clay and rolled it out with my roller (shame on me, can't find my pasta maker that is dedicated to my clay work), and I used a tear drop shape cutter to cut out the shapes.  Then I used a sharp piercing tool to do little dotted lines for the veins and then played connect the dots to fill in the lines.  I learned that trick on Pinterest.

Here is another trick I learned on Pinterest.  I found out that you can microwave Polymer clay.  You heard me right.  You use a microwave safe dish, put plenty of water in it and nuke it for about 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the clay.  The only thing that I read was not to do this in a ceramic dish.  The ceramic changes the composition of the clay and it will break down or something like that.  IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!!  I poured out the hot water and replaced it with ice water and my leaves are super hard.

Then I took red acrylic paint and painted them.  I used a damp paper towel to wipe most of the paint off, leaving it in the crevices.  I also dabbed some paint on the edges.  That was another Pinterest find too.  I didn't glaze them yet.  I am thinking I will leave them as is to make them look more organic than shiny.

Now, just if I could find my pasta machine.  I have not played with my clay in so long that I put it away somewhere.  I had to hunt for all my clay tools too.  Found those.  I looked all over my craft room.  I am either over looking it or it got packed into a tote and taken to the basement for storage when I cleared out my craft room to make room for all of my paper crafting stuff.